Post by earl on Apr 7, 2008 18:21:08 GMT
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Relatives of victims killed in Northern Ireland's deadliest single bombing launched on Monday a civil action against five people at Belfast's High Court, a court official said.
An electrician was acquitted in December of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing, meaning no one has been convicted nearly a decade after the attack.
Families of victims reacted with outrage to the verdict and the judge sharply criticised the quality of forensic evidence and the police investigation in the province.
Irish media reported on Monday some relatives of the victims have launched the suit against five men they suspect were connected to the attack.
"They have brought a civil action against five defendants related to the Omagh bombing," a Northern Ireland Court Service official said.
The case is expected to last several weeks.
The only person so far jailed in connection with Omagh, bar owner Colm Murphy from the Irish Republic, had his conviction quashed by a Dublin court in 2005. He faces a retrial.
The attack, in which 200 people were wounded, was carried out by the Real IRA, a breakaway faction of Irish nationalist paramilitaries.
It opposed a 1997 truce by the mainstream IRA in its campaign to oust Britain from Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland marks the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement on April 10.
The 1998 deal largely ended 30 years of violence that killed over 3,600 people but tension persist between minority Catholics, who mostly want to see the province reunited with the rest of Ireland, and majority Protestants seeking to preserve British sovereignty.
An electrician was acquitted in December of murdering 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing, meaning no one has been convicted nearly a decade after the attack.
Families of victims reacted with outrage to the verdict and the judge sharply criticised the quality of forensic evidence and the police investigation in the province.
Irish media reported on Monday some relatives of the victims have launched the suit against five men they suspect were connected to the attack.
"They have brought a civil action against five defendants related to the Omagh bombing," a Northern Ireland Court Service official said.
The case is expected to last several weeks.
The only person so far jailed in connection with Omagh, bar owner Colm Murphy from the Irish Republic, had his conviction quashed by a Dublin court in 2005. He faces a retrial.
The attack, in which 200 people were wounded, was carried out by the Real IRA, a breakaway faction of Irish nationalist paramilitaries.
It opposed a 1997 truce by the mainstream IRA in its campaign to oust Britain from Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland marks the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement on April 10.
The 1998 deal largely ended 30 years of violence that killed over 3,600 people but tension persist between minority Catholics, who mostly want to see the province reunited with the rest of Ireland, and majority Protestants seeking to preserve British sovereignty.